Catholicism
The Catholic Church is the Christian Church in full communion with the Bishop of Rome. It traces its origins and sees itself as the same Church founded by Jesus and maintained through Apostolic Succession from the Twelve Apostles. The Catholic Church is the largest Christian Church and the largest organized body of any world religion. It is a worldwide organization made up of one Western or Latin-Rite and 22 Eastern Rite particular Churches, all of which have the Holy See of Rome as their highest authority. It is divided into jurisdictional areas, usually on a territorial basis. The standard territorial unit is called a diocese in the Latin Rite and an eparchy in the Eastern Rites, each of which is headed by a bishop. The Catholic Church does not allow divorce. Catholics in Ruled Britannia Catholicism was the official state religion of England until the English Reformation under Henry VIII in 1529, at which point England became a Protestant kingdom. Throughout the remainder of the sixteenth century, religion became something of a political football, with Protestantism supported by Henry VIII and his daughter, Queen Elizabeth and Catholicism supported by Queen Mary Tudor and the Spanish-backed Queen Isabella. The majority of England's neighbors, including Spain, France, and Ireland, were Catholic kingdoms, but in the Spanish colony of the Netherlands a Protestant rebellion against King Philip II battled Catholic forces with English support. The Protestant Queen Elizabeth executed her Catholic cousin, [Queen of Scots, in 1587. By the rules of primogeniture, Mary had had the strongest claim on succession to the English throne after Elizabeth herself, and many Catholics the world over, believing that Henry's marriage to Anne Boleyn was invalid and Elizabeth was therefore illegitimate, had insisted that Mary was the rightful Queen of England even while Elizabeth lived. Philip II, who like all Hapsburgs was devoutly Catholic, and who had briefly been king of a Catholic England during the reign of his second wife, Mary Tudor, as Queen of England, dispatched the Spanish Armada to invade and conquer England in 1588. The mission was successful, and the Spaniards installed Philip's daughter and son-in-law, Isabella and Albert as King and Queen of England. The new monarchs restored Catholicism and favored English and Irish Catholics (both of whom contributed troops to a Spanish-led international occupation garrison to enforce Hapsburg rule) over their Protestant neighbors and one-time persecutors. When William and Robert Cecil orchestrated and led an uprising against Isabella and Albert in 1598, the general pattern was expected to be that English Protestants would support the rebellion and English Catholics would resist it. However, many English Catholics, tired of rule of their country by a foreign power, also supported the restoration of Elizabeth--though persecution of Catholics in England became fierce in the weeks and months following Elizabeth's restoration. William Shakespeare, whose play Boudicca contributed so much to the Cecils' revolt against the Spanish, had a Catholic father, John Shakespeare, and was sympathetic to the religion himself. Catholics in Southern Victory The Catholic Church generally supported the Central Powers during the Great War. The Central Powers created the Catholic nations of Quebec, Ireland, and Poland out of territories American and German forces had occupied from what had once been Protestant or Eastern Orthodox countries, and the Catholic Church encouraged collaboration with the occupiers. At least one collaborationist priest, Pascal Talon, was rewarded with elevation to the office of Bishop of the newly-created Diocese of Riviere-du-Loup, which was formed to celebrate the founding of the independent Republic. The Canadian province of Quebec had a Catholic majority at the beginning of the Great War, but the British authorities favored Protestantism. This religious difference, along with a linguistic difference, led the Quebecois to feel disaffected from Canada. United States President Theodore Roosevelt used this disaffection to his advantage when he created the Republic of Quebec in 1916. In the United States, Catholics made up a sizable segment of the population in the Northeastern region of the country. President Al Smith was a Catholic. In the Confederate States, the only Catholic majorities were in the Hispanic states of Sonora, Chihuahua, and Cuba. There was also a good-sized Catholic population among the Cajuns of Southern Louisiana (descendants of Quebecois refugees who settled the region several centuries earlier). Though the CS was predominantly Protestant and overtly favored that religion in many ways, Catholicism was a tolerated minority religion, especially under Jake Featherston, who saw no particular importance in any religion at all, so long as it did not present opposition to the Freedom Party. Featherston was pleased that Pope Pius XII did not condemn the Black Holocaust. In France, Charles XI overtly favored Catholics over Jews, Protestants, and Freemasons. Catholics in Worldwar Due to the support of Pope Pius XII for the Race, Catholics in most of the territories administered by the Race tended to support the alien government, especially after the destruction of Rome by a German atomic bomb in 1943. However, they steadfastly refused to worship the Spirits of Emperors Past, and there was at least one uprising against the Race in the predominantly Catholic country of Argentina. The Catholic Poles supported the Race in Poland when their country was invaded by Germany in 1965 and put their militia under the chain of command of the Conquest Fleet. They had earlier resisted the Race when it first invaded in the 1940s. In Northern Ireland, Catholics opposed the presence of British occupying authorities and were often involved in violent episodes with their pro-British Protestant neighbors. Countries with Catholic Majorities * Argentina * Austria-Hungary * Brazil * Chile * France * Haiti * Ireland * Italy * Mexico * Paraguay * Poland * Quebec * Romania * Spain * Venezuela Catholic Catholic Catholic Catholic